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Girardi signed a four-year contract that could be worth up to $20 million Wednesday to stay with New York through 2017.

With the Yankees missing out on the playoffs this season for the second time in 19 years, Girardi, 48, got an early start on determining his future. He went over several possible scenarios with his wife, Kim, and three children that included taking a year off, pursuing a broadcasting job or managing somewhere else. But they quickly concluded that six years in New York was not enough.

"It wasn't ever a lot of thought that I might not possibly come back. I just had to make sure that everyone was still on board," Girardi said.

Girardi was in the final month of his second three-year contract with the Yankees since taking over for Joe Torre after the 2007 season, and he asked for a fourth year in the new deal.

The contract includes $16 million guaranteed and up to $4 million in bonuses, the Associated Press reported. He'll have the second-highest annual salary of any manager, after the Angels' Mike Scioscia, who averages $5 million.

"Our lives have been here for six years," Girardi said. "I think stability is important."

He said the pull of returning to his native Illinois to manage the Cubs, the team he grew up rooting for, wasn't a factor. Once his family agreed he should manage, it was set on New York.

"Chicago is special to me. And I think it'll always be special to me," Girardi said. "But this place is really special to me, too, because of what I've experienced here. … And my kids and my wife are established in the community here. We just thought it was important to stay."

OBITUARY:Andy Pafko, a four-time All-Star who played on the last Cubs team to reach the World Series and was the famously forlorn outfielder who watched Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round the World sail over the leftfield wall during the 1951 National League playoff, died Tuesday in Stevensville, Mich. He was 92. A fan favorite known for his dogged play and diving catches, Mr. Pafko played with Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1951-52 and with Hank Aaron as a Milwaukee Brave from 1954-59.

GM RIPS TEAM: Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers said he wants his pitchers to protect teammates who get thrown at and he will look to move any who doesn't comply with his edict. "Some of them, contractually, it's tough to move," Towers told a Phoenix radio station. "But I think come spring training, it will be duly noted that it's going to be an eye for an eye and we're going to protect one another."